FILE - This Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015, file photo, Jodi Arias, right, sits with her defense attorney Jennifer Willmott during the sentencing phase of her retrial at Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix. The jury in the Arias case has reached a verdict on whether the convicted murderer should be sentenced to life in prison or death for killing her lover nearly seven years ago on Thursday, March 5, 2015. (AP Photo/The Arizona Republic, Mark Henle, Pool, File)

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge has declared a mistrial in the Jodi Arias sentencing retrial after jurors deadlocked on whether the convicted murderer should be executed or sent to prison for life for killing her lover in 2008.

The decision on Thursday removes the death penalty as an option and leaves the judge to sentence Arias to either life in prison or a life term with the possibility of release after 25 years.

It marked the second time a jury has deadlocked on her punishment — a disappointment for prosecutors who argued for the death penalty during the nearly seven-year legal battle against Arias.

The 2013 trial of Arias was broadcast live and became a sensation with its tawdry revelations about her relationship with victim Travis Alexander and that she shot him in the head and slit his throat so deeply that he was nearly decapitated.

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